Locarno honors Bernal

Fest to screen his 'No,' 'Bad Education,' 'Sleep'

ROME — Mexican thesp Gael Garcia Bernal will be feted by the Locarno Film Festival with an Excellence Award during a ceremony before a screening of Chilean helmer Pablo Larrain’s “No,” in which he stars.

Bernal plays an adman who mounts a campaign against Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. “No” won this year’s Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. It will unspool at Locarno’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande outdoor venue.

As part of the tribute, which is sponsored by Moet and Chandon, the Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema will also screen two works considered instrumental to Bernal’s career, Pedro Almodovar’s “Bad Education” and Michel Gondry’s “The Science of Sleep.”